Fuji Heavy Industries is adopting production techniques from its Subaru car division to cut costs and help break into business jets and win a share of the 737 and A320 replacement programs. A head-to-head competition with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries looks likely, with Fuji stating its strategy is to specialize in wing production. Mitsubishi is also aiming to become a wing specialist, as well as a builder of complete aircraft (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 28).
The more than $630-billion stopgap spending bill Bush signed last week includes $487.7 billion to fund the Defense Dept. through the end of Fiscal 2009. The continuing resolution (CR) crafted by Congress keeps most other federal government agencies at current spending levels—which in most cases is that of Fiscal 2007—through Mar. 6. But the current CR has Fiscal 2009 monies for defense, homeland security, military construction and veterans affairs.
Steve Taylor (see photo) has been named vice president-aircraft management sales for the Western U.S. for Executive Jet Management of Cincinnati. He was the international operations and special programs manager.
Airports operator BAA is challenging a recent report from the U.K. Competition Commission. It says it will sell Gatwick but is fighting to keep its other properties in London and Scotland. BAA says the commission’s findings include “significant flaws” and fail to take into account BAA’s capacity planning and development as well as its plans for airport expansion in the southeast.
As its machinists strike neared the one-month mark last week, Boeing picked up 13 orders, including nine for 767s for All Nippon Airways (see p. 60). United Airlines ordered two 737s as did an unidentified buyer, and Boeing sold one 747 BBJ. It now has 623 net orders for the year: 470 737s, 20 767s, 78 787s, 52 777s and three 747s.
A second prototype Sukhoi Su-35 (Su-27SM2) flew for the first time on Oct. 2 from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur production plant in Russia’s Far East. Deliveries of the Su-35, the second variant of the Su-27 Flanker to bear this number, are due to begin to the Russian air force in 2011. They will provide an interim capability upgrade until the air force’s PAK FA fifth-generation fighter program is ready to enter service, after 2015.
The No. 2 Embraer Phenom 300, now in certification flight testing, represents part of the $1 billion that the company is investing to populate the business aviation market with five new models, ranging from the purpose-built Phenom 100 VLJ to the 19-passenger Lineage 1000 (see p. 74). The Brazilian manufacturer entered the business aviation market in 2000 with the Legacy 600, an executive version of its ERJ 135 regional jet, of which more than 100 are in service. Embraer photo.
JetBird, a startup European charter operator, says it has secured financing in the form of a $14.4-million equity investment from an unnamed, family-owned Middle Eastern trading group and a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland for pre-delivery payments on its first 25 Phenom 100s. The Ireland-based company plans a 2009 launch with a fleet that will eventually total 100 Embraer Phenom jets, 53 of which are on firm order. Meanwhile, Jet Republic, another new European operator based in Portugal, has begun selling jet cards in 25-hr. blocks.
The U.S. Army might increasingly abandon some of its largest legacy systems as it devotes nearly $45 billion in plus-ups to its Future Combat Systems (FCS), according to a pending Program Objective Memorandum (POM) for fiscal 2010-15. Whether Pentagon leaders approve the funding push for FCS remains to be seen, but the FY10-15 POM continues to demonstrate the Army’s unwavering commitment to fielding its entire FCS program. The Aug. 5 “pre-decisional” document calls for $1.3 billion in cuts to Stryker procurement and $2.07 billion to Abrams tank upgrades.
The FAA will revise, and may have to reissue, its multimillion-dollar mandate for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast avionics after reviewing scores of changes suggested by aircraft operators and industry experts.
Late last July, this reporter became the first journalist to fly the Phenom 100. And as soon as the electrical power came on, it was apparent that the very light jet (VLJ) benefited from Embraer’s considerable experience as a seasoned jetliner manufacturer. Accompanied by senior flight test pilot Antonio Braganca Silva and flight test engineer Maximillian Kleinubing, we embarked upon a 2-hr. 44-min. evaluation flight in EMB500 serial No. 500-801, Embraer’s first flight-test aircraft.
Greg Meals and Ron Larson have been appointed maintenance service managers and Al Diaz and Steve Nifong service supervisors at the Dallas facility of West Star Aviation Inc.
Andreas Meisel (see photos) has been named CEO/general manager and Chai Weixi general manager of Air China and Lufthansa joint venture Ameco Beijing . Olaf Albrecht has become senior director of marketing and sales, succeeding Jan Butzmann, who is now manager of Ameco Beijing Engine Services. Thomas Kuhn has been appointed manager of aircraft overhaul.
Thales is seeking to leverage its growing role as a commercial and military transport cockpit and cabin integrator to carve out a similar position in the business aviation world.
Readers have expressed their worries about the logistical burdens of counter-rotating propellers and gearboxes on the Airbus Military A400M (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 9; Aug. 18/25, p. 12). Controllability of the airplane with powerful engines and huge propellers following a propulsion system malfunction must have been a greater safety-related worry for Airbus, though. The huge propellers on each wing rotate in opposite directions to each other, down in-between.
Deputy Air Force Undersecretary for Space Gary Payton says the U.S. is “one launch vehicle failure away from having gaps,” in its overhead imagery collection capability. This is one reason cited for the need for expediency in moving forward with the Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability program, which aims to procure one or more 1.1-meter commercial imaging satellites for use by the Pentagon. The spacecraft are needed to eliminate “possible gaps we may have three to four years from now,” says Vice Adm.
Dassault Systemes has released Isight for Abaqus, a new product from Simulia, the company’s brand for realistic simulation that leverages technology from recently acquired Engineous Software. It is an add-on product for Abaqus FEA software that provides design exploration and optimization technology, which enables designers and engineers to perform rapid trade-off studies of real-world behavior. The software allows a user to explore thousands of design options in a realm of competitive choices.
Virgin Galactic and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have signed a letter of intent to explore the use of Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket and its White Knight Two airborne launcher to carry a series of instruments for climate research and other needs. The first of the instruments would supply data on atmospheric composition, particularly CO2 and other greenhouse gases, to fill gaps in the data chain and help calibrate satellite measurements.
Split procurements and leveraging technology investment from potential export customers are being touted as the Eurofighter partners try to conclude negotiations for the third production run. The option of being able to phase procurement of their Tranche 3 numbers has been discussed as one means of easing budgetary pressure. The U.K. and Italy in particular have been struggling with funding issues.
Robert Clare has become Wichita, Kan.-based director original equipment manufacturer marketing for the Universal Avionics Systems Corp. He was manager of Central U.S. marketing.
This year’s Defense Dept. performance based logistics (PBL) awards have been won by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and the U.S. Air Force for readiness rates of the F-22; a Raytheon/U.S. Navy team for the ALV-67(v) Radar Warning System; and a General Dynamics/U.S. Army team for the AN/TSQ 221 Tactical Airspace Integration System program for air traffic control and battle command. The awards recognize government-industry partnerships at the system, subsystem and product levels.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the FAA’s plan to auction flight slots at New York-area airports is on shaky legal ground. The FAA argues the slots are intangible property that it has the right to sell or lease. But the GAO maintains the FAA “lacks the authority to auction arrival and departure slots, and thus also lacks the authority to retain and use auction proceeds.” As expected, the Transportation Dept.
Ten years after Russia’s Zarya module became the first element of the International Space Station to reach orbit, the partners who invested billions to build the orbiting microgravity research facility are beginning to shift from station assembly to operations.
Russian investors are showing a penchant for American light jet aircraft manufacturing. In July, Russia’s Industrial Investors and Kaskol Group bought equal shares in Adam Aircraft of Colorado for a combined $10 million through AAI Acquisition, their Delaware-based holding set up for purchase of the bankrupt maker of the Adam 700 very light jet. On Sept.
Space Exploration Technologies expects to increase payload capability of the Falcon 1 following the successful demonstration flight of a launch vehicle from the Pacific island of Omelek in the Kwajalein Atoll on Sept. 28.
